Have you ever slept next to a snoring partner and woken up the next day feeling stressed, having trouble concentrating, and feeling like you're forgetting?
Snoring while sleeping is a common problem and hence it is often ignored and dismissed as a minor problem.
But according to experts, sleeping next to a person who snoring can have a bad effect on your health.
Dr. Claire Simon explains that snoring occurs when the soft tissue of our upper respiratory tract vibrates while sleeping. Dr. Simon is an expert in dentistry with a special interest in sleep medicine.
According to the British Snoring and Sleep Apnea Association (BSSAA), approximately 40 percent of the UK adult population snores and men are more affected by this problem than women.
According to a survey by the Sleep Foundation of America, 75 percent of people who live with a snoring partner said that their sleep has been affected.
Let us know about what effect snoring has on your partner and what you can do about it.
memory and concentration
Professor Ama Johal, consultant orthodontist and sleep expert at Aerox Health, explains that the partner of a person who snores can be so affected that getting up and going to sleep in another room becomes their last option, after all they too have to sleep.
He says, "We are human beings, our body cannot function without complete sleep."
During the night, we move through different stages of sleep in a repeating pattern, usually every 90 minutes.
The deeper stages of this cycle, i.e. the deep sleep cycle, are very important for removing physical fatigue and for better health.
According to the BSSA, if your sleep is disrupted frequently, your body may spend less time in this restorative stage of sleep and you may feel tired despite spending more hours lying in bed.
It is during sleep that our brain processes and stores the information collected throughout the day. If your partner snores and you have to wake up again and again, you are unable to go into deep sleep.
Due to this disturbed sleep, this process can also be disrupted and it can affect your memory and concentration.
Poor sleep can also affect hormones and affect your physical energy and can make you feel mentally tired.
The part of our brain that controls stress and emotional reactions also plays an important role in controlling the systems associated with sleep.
These systems can become unbalanced due to sleep disturbance. This can make you irritable and you may feel less able to deal with stress.
29-year-old Meg Warren had a similar experience. Her former partner used to snore and this disturbed her sleep.
"I used to feel incredibly alert every time I was interrupted by snoring," says Meg.
Meggie, a media officer at a charity organization, says that she used to encourage her partner to lie on his back the whole night.
According to Meggie, when she woke up in the morning, she felt sleepy and unconscious. She says, "Sometimes it was so much that it felt like a hangover."
Snoring became a test in their relationship. "I always said that if we lived together we would have a spare bedroom for nights of unbearable snoring," explains Meggie.
Simon says that sleep disturbance due to partner's snoring can cause irritability and can also lead to fights.
They say that if partners decide to sleep in different rooms because of snoring, it can also reduce intimacy.
Anna Louise Dearden, a 52-year-old journalist, says she sometimes sleeps in a separate room from her partner because of his snoring.
Anna finds that sleeping in a separate room when the snoring is bad helps her prioritize her body's comfort.
"If you wake up in the morning and you've had a bad night's sleep, you're more likely to eat more and feel more irritable," says Anna Lewis.
Anna often woke up at night because of her partner's snoring.
However, wearing ear plugs proved to be very helpful for him.
She says that when she sleeps in the same bed with her partner, ear plugs protect her from the noise of snoring.
When should one seek help?
Both Simon and Johal say that some measures can be taken. But first, it's important to find out whether your partner is simply snoring or has sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is a disease due to which a person's breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep.
Its symptoms include obstruction in breathing, suffocation at night, frequent awakenings and headache in the morning.
Simon explains that if you are struggling with this problem, you may be advised to use a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine or, in some cases, even surgical treatment.
Simon says that in cases of simple snoring, lifestyle changes can make a difference. Such as losing weight, quitting smoking, reducing alcohol consumption before bed, or changing sleeping positions, such as lying on your side instead of your back.
You can also suggest your partner to see a doctor who can refer you to a specialist depending on your condition.
If the cause of snoring is nasal blockage or allergy, then experts can suggest its treatment.
In some situations it may also be advisable to wear a special mouthguard to gently push the lower jaw forward and keep the airway open.
Johal says many couples tolerate snoring "for too long", impacting both their relationships and health.
